Thrilling and exciting picture with an extraordinary duo , Paul Newman and Dominique Sanda , they form an awesome pair in this interesting flick . This is an entertaining movie full of all usual trimmings : car pursuits , fistfights , noisy action , getaway and capture . It deals with a member of British Intelligence named Reardon (Paul Newman) who undergoes a risked assignment ordered by Mackintosh (Harry Andrews) . As he is recruited , assuming a fictitious criminal identity and allows himself to be caught , imprisoned, and freed in order to infiltrate a spy organization led by a mysterious leader (Michael Hordern) . Reardon have to expose a communist traitor and he also must catch him . The intrigue involves a Conservative Member of the British Parliament, Sir George Wheeler (James Mason) , who is best known for his frequent political diatribes on the British government . Meanwhile , Reardon goes in action , being helped by a beautiful agent (Dominique Sanda in her first Hollywood movie for French actress) . A cold war spy thriller with all the edge-of-seat ingredients : suspense , thrills , a complex intrigue , twists and turns . Intriguing and thrilling script , being one of the first produced screenplays of Walter Hill who later became an action thriller director . Paul Newman is first rate as a secret agent assigned a dangerous mission accompanied by a beauty Dominique Sanda . Wily and excellent , as always , James Mason as a cunning Parliament member with dark aims . This is the first of two movies that actors Paul Newman and James Mason made together , the other was Verdict . It's also the second of two movies that director John Huston and actor Paul Newman made together , he first was The judge Roy Bean , made the previous year . Supporting cast is frankly magnificent , such as Ian Bannen , Nigel Patrick , Michael Hordern , Percy Herbert , the last film of Noel Purcell and Niall MacGinnis and special mention to Harry Andrews as Mackintosh . This film and its source novel were loosely based on the identification, defection and escape from Wormwood Scrubs Prison in 1966 of Russian spy George Blake who was working in British intelligence as a double agent but was not one of the Cambridge Five spies . Colorful and evocative cinematography by Oswald Morris filmed on location in London , Ireland and Malta . Enjoyable musical score by the great Maurice Jarre , including a catching leitmotif . The motion picture was well produced by John Foreman who financed various Huston films such as The Man Who Would Be King ; being stunningly directed by the great John Huston at his best . Director John Huston made this spy movie not longer after he had helmed another espionage film , Kremlin's letter . The picture was made in a good time of the 70s and 80s when Huston resurged as a director of quality films with Fat City, (1972 ), the afore-mentioned The man who would be king (1975) and Wise blood (1979). He ended his career on a high note with Under volcano (1984), Honor of Prizzi (1985) and Dublineses (1987). Rating : 7 above average , worthwhile watching , though P.G. , parents guide , for its violence and beatings . This is one of John Huston's main films , a model of his kind , the spy genre , definitely a must see if you are aficionado to thriller film . Huston broke a new ground with this landmark movie , providing exciting scenes and unforgettable dialogs .

***SPOILERS*** Given the assignment by his boss code name Makintosh, Harry Andrews,to go undercover as a convicted mail thief British secret agent Joseph Rearden, Paul Newman, gets himself arrested after mugging a mailman of a package containing 140,000 pound sterling in cut diamonds.Given a 20 year sentence by the courts Rearden is now in position to get in close with convicted communist spy Slade, Ian Banner, who's serving life and find out about the spy ring he's involved in Great Britain and who's the Mr. Big that's running it. It doesn't take long for Rearden to contact a Mr. Brown, Michael Hordern, an inmate at the prison who sets up an elaborate escape plan for both him and Slade to crash out of the joint. What in fact Rearden doesn't quite know is that Slade's outside contacts are wise to him in knowing that he in fact is not a career criminal but an impostor and are ready, after he's in their custody, to beat the truth out of Rearden even if it ends up killing him! ***SPOILERS*** As things soon turn out the very person who can verify that Rearden is in fact working undercover for the British I5, or intelligence department, Makintosh gets run over and later dies from his injuries! This leaves Rearden out in the cold as a convicted criminal on the run from the police as well as the Soviet spy ring that's determent to silence him.The film has Rearden get involved with his contact on the outside Mrs. Smith, Dominique Sanda, who as it turns out is the late Mr. Mackintosh's daughter as well as a member of the British I5.***MAJOR SPOILER*** As for the person who's in fact is running the spy ring he turns out to be a 25 year member of the British Parliment who's about as anti-communist as well super patriotic as one can get; Dubbed by the British press as "Mr. Law and Order" himself Sir George Wheeler played by James, no relations to Perry, Mason! With Wheeler knowing that Rearden is in fact an undercover British Agent makes things even worse for him and Mrs.Smith then they already are! That's until the very end of the film when the tables are turned and the person who has the most to lose in both Wheeler and Slade ending up free turns on them! With fatal results!P.S Paul Newman plays it real cool as undercover British Agent Joseph Rearden and shows off his ability behind the wheel or a car in one of the most bizarre car chases in movie history across the Irish countryside. The car chase finally ends up with the Soviet Agents chasing him crashing off a 200 foot cliff and into the Irish Sea. Newman also shows us what a great swimmer he is in doing in what looked like without a stunt double, at at age 47, all his underwater stunts with his suit tie and shoes on! This was such an amazing aquatic feat on Newman's part that I don't doubt for a moment that even the great Johnny "Tarzan" Weissmuller would have found difficult to duplicate!

This time we have a good old British spy film in which the real traitor is the one who is calling for all traitors and criminals to be terminated. Joseph Rearden, the infiltrator who is supposed to expose the whole network, then is a solitary man in an erupting nest of aspics. The only one he could trust does not survive his silly confidence. Macintosh is a vain little mule who still trusted one person in the world, his own assassin. A solitary man against a very well organized spying business finds it slightly difficult but he is an Interpol agent after all. So he knows how to swim between two different currents without drowning. His escape from prison and his escape from the hiding house in Ireland are absolutely amusing. It is so easy. No one is going to believe that one. And yet everyone believes it and they end up in Malta and have a good laugh, a sacrilegious laugh after killing two people in a church. Mama Mia. That film from 1973 is funny in many ways because the action is so easygoing, like some kind of slow business in a back street on a bank holiday Sunday when everyone is out of town. It is in a way funny to see such a film today with an actor who is worth a lot and yet is dramatically under-used and under-directed if not just plain undirected or maybe even misdirected. One thing is impossible today: the drowning of the dog: you would have the RSPA on your back from the shoulders to the ankles for such cruelty to animals. Slightly too long and too realistic. It is as if we were watching the sketches of Guernica instead of Guernica. Some preparatory sketches instead of a masterpiece. But well it is fun to watch some peaceful and rather restive spy film that does not explode in all directions. But well a tiny bit more action might have been a good thing.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, University Paris 8 Saint Denis, University Paris 12 Créteil, CEGID

British society is under assault according to the opening scene which has James Mason as a Conservative MP addressing Parliament about social decay. Of course when it comes down to it, he's about as corrupt as they come, a fact suspected by the British police, who orchestrate a plan to infiltrate a criminal gang by getting one of their own (Paul Newman) sent to prison. Hollywood talent of writer Walter Hill (great 70's and 80's director), John Huston and Paul Newman mingles with British sensibilities and a really nice soundtrack to create a whole that exceeds the parts. The story starts take off at about the middle of the film, out somewhere on the Irish moors with Newman having infiltrated the criminal gang who had sprung him out of prison. The viewer is lulled into thinking this is a lighter film than it actually turns out to be, which has some surprisingly tough parts, especially the ending.